BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Contemporary Gallery emerged on Sun Valley’s art scene in late December 2023 showcasing  innovative artists such as Atticus Adams and Anna Kruhelska whose works had not been seen in Sun Valley before.

But they nearly didn’t open in time for their inaugural Christmas Gallery walk, as the water pipes in the old Friesen Gallery building that the gallery opened in burst a couple weeks earlier. Undaunted, the staff managed to pull it off, hanging works of art even as those attending the evening’s Gallery Walk wandered in.

There’ll be no such frantic last-minute moves this year as the gallery celebrates its first anniversary with a Client Appreciation Party from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22. There’ll be live music and refreshments and opportunities to mingle with friends while perusing the gallery’s newest works.

“We’re excited to show off our unique middle-to-late-career artists who use highly skilled techniques you don’t see anywhere else,” said Gallery Director Richard Sills. “We’re bringing in a whole lot of new art I’m particularly excited about, including works by Seattle’s Electric Coffin, who create very playful, fantastical experimenting with different materials and processes.”

Sills grew up in the art world, even traveling to Europe with his family to buy art for art auction dealers. A third-generation gallerist, got a degree in fine art from UCLA, and has spent 40 years working in galleries in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami.

But he feels as if he’s found his niche in Sun Valley, arriving in June with his cat Sunny.

“What’s not to love about a small mountain town, a ski town!” said Sills, who particularly loves the impressionists, Andy Warhol and Matisse.

Sun Valley Contemporary Art is part of Whistler, B.C.-based Off-Piste Fine Arts known for an expansive collection of art from leading Canadian and international contemporary and landscape artists. In the business for more than 30 years, it has five gallery locations in Canada in the Four Seasons, Hilton Hotel and Fairmont in Whistler, British Columbia, as well as the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and the Fairmont Banff Springs in Alberta.

Sun Valley Contemporary Art is its first foray into America but it hopes to add other American galleries to its portfolio, said Sills.

“The main thing about art at this gallery is that it’s unique. I’ve heard repeatedly from people how different it is from everything else. Most of the artists here are American, but we have one from Poland and another from the Bahamas,” Sills said.

Anna Kruhelska, for instance, is a Polish architect who has worked on projects in Russia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, Sills said: “And she does these amazing abstract, three-dimensional paper wall reliefs

“New York artist Bill Claps, who studied in Florence, Italy, did a series for us of Bald Mountain, Galena, the Sawtooths and aspen along the Wood River using a technique he learned in Japan with gold foil on and hand cut linen edges.”

Hunt Slonem, whose works are in the Guggenheim Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Museum, found his niche in butterflies and bunny rabbits, which he lovingly depicts in various frames.

Jane Waterous is known for her Gathering Series, which feature tiny three-dimensional figures engaged in dancing and other activities as they form the shape of a heart or the word “love.”

Colorado artist Sarah Winkler, who has lived in landscapes around the world from Norway to Malawi,  employs a unique collage method to form striking landscapes using the grain of woods in her panels.

Aaron Hazel is known for his wildlife depictions and, in Sun Valley, for his “Hemingway” oil on canvas.

Colombian-born Max Steven Grossman set out to study engineering but ended up completing a Master of Arts in Photography from New York University. One of his most renowned series, “Bookscapes” dotes on libraries that exist only in his photographs as he digitally organizes them into shelves full of books of fashion, architecture, art and other subjects.

And Cathryn Jenkins, a British Columbia artist, grew up in the studio of her mother, a renowned Canadian sculptor, where she learned to appreciate the unique qualities of different stones. Influenced by her mother and Inuit sculptors, she now transforms stones like Revelstoke Argillite and Tennessee Marble into eagles, and other wild creatures.

Sills says the gallery, which is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, is customer service driven. The gallery offers virtual previews of art in homes. Clients can take a photo of a room and send over the dimensions. The gallery’s art consultants will send back photos of the art superimposed in the space.

They also do installations with no obligation.

“Most of our clients are in Sun Valley but we ship all over the world,” he said. “We’re a business but we also want to be a contributor to the community.”